Don't Wake Me When It's Over
by bored-piper
Summary: Suki is haunted by the desperate screams of the other prisoners that echo through the halls of the Boiling Rock; and knows that soon, she too will be dragged away to be "interrogated", just like the rest of them were. Spending another one of her nights sleepless, she remembers a conversation she had back on Kyoshi about the Fire Nation's prisons, and contemplates escape. One-shot.


Wrote this as a small break from my main story, which is coming to an end soon-ish. Although I might drag it out a bit with an epilogue. In the flashback, I know I don't name the "other Warrior", and it's intently done, so I apologize if I reuse a few words a lot to identify her. Also, if it becomes confusing about who I'm referring to, or who is speaking, etc. please let me know in a PM or a review so that I can fix that as soon as possible. Character's thoughts, and flashbacks, will be in _italics_. Do enjoy!

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0o

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Suki tapped out a simple tune with her fingers against the cold steel of the prison cell's wall. The sound resonating through the cell and echoing back in her ears. _ It's been nearly a week since I got here._ She thought, _although I did lose count of a few days after arriving._ She sat in a long silence in her cell. Devoid of any real sunlight; she could only begin to guess at the time of the day, or perhaps the night. The time in between meals and their daily outing in the prison yard were lost in the boredom that tortured Suki day in and day out; hours could pass and she would never know, or minutes could pass and seem to be hours. The only thing that occasionally broke the silence was the distant, disembodied screams that pierced through the halls of the prison cell block –courtesy of the Fire Nation's interrogators who have been working with haste in the aftermath of the failed invasion.

Suki's ears perked up, hearing a faint sound.

It came again: the soft scrapping of a man's fingernails across the metal panels as he was being dragged back to his cell.

It was a sound that she had become far too accustomed to in the past days and sleepless nights. The Kyoshi Warrior shuddered as she heard the cell door adjacent to hers swing open, its metal hinges shrieking in protest, and the soft thud of a limp body landing hard on the unforgiving ground. Fifteen minutes later, the man in the cell next to Suki came to his senses. His groans of pain lasting the majority of the night, and escalated to screams only once for a short time. And yet, Suki couldn't bring herself to try and block them out –despite it keeping her from sleeping for many hours

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0o

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The Fire Nation's interrogations had started promptly on the first night of their arrival at the prison. Suki noted that, without fail, the guards had taken away a prisoner every day after their daily outing in the prison yard. Only depositing them back in their cell hours later, just before dusk; allowing their pained cries to wear on the other prisoners every night. They worked in a simple manner. Starting with the first cell in the block, they worked their way down the row of cells at a rate of one per night; and would continue to do so until somebody cracked, until somebody backstabbed their friends and turned their back to the only hope of ending this long and bloody war. _And even then, should one person give up what they know about the invasion, and those who escaped –only a fool would think that they would stop, and spare the rest of us when we, too, might know more._

At first, to Suki at least, their cries seemed distant and detached from reality. Their screams, their moans, they all seemed surreal to her at the time, as if they were the product of some unworldly beast who was beyond all hope of savior, and could only hope to find release from his agony through his hellish cries.

These cries reminded her of another Kyoshi Warrior, one who occasionally woke her up by accident with her own cries, products of the nightmares that plagued this Warrior constantly. Suki knew that it was hell for her comrade, but it was a hell that nobody could even hope to help her escape. It was one that she would have to deal with on her own; but that never stopped Suki and the other Warriors from always let her off easy on the daily chores and training.

These nightmares –courtesy of the Fire Nation, were the product of her being in and out of several Fire Nation prisons over many years. This Warrior garnered Suki's utmost respect for what she had gone through in her past. _And soon, I'll have had a taste of what she endured. _ She shuddered at the thought. She had once caught a glimpse of the scars the crisscrossed her friend's body, when, begrudgingly, this Warrior had gone in one of the hot springs that were abundant on their island with the rest of her friends.

Thoughts of dread filled her mind. Those scars that she had seen on her friend, even if it was for only a split second, told a story of pain that no other person on the island could ever understand. She had pondered why her fellow Warrior willingly subjected herself to that, but the only answer she could ever come up with was so that "nobody else has to," as she always answered to Suki's questions.

_And now I know nothing about where she is. _

Suki thought back to the brief conversation they one had in the dead of night. It was about their lifelong enemy's prison system, with which one was so well acquainted, and one who's knowledge was only based on rumors.

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0o_** Flashback:**_

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_It was well past midnight when Suki approached the rocky shore that adorned the northern coast of their island. She had followed one of the other Warriors there as silently as she could, although she was sure her compatriot was well aware of her presence._

"_Trouble sleeping again?" She asked, abandoning all thoughts of stealth._

"_Bad memories. They do that sometimes." The other Warrior said softly, her voice almost lost with the noise of the ocean and the slight breeze._

"_I've heard the stories about their prisons, but…I always thought they were stories. I never would have imagined they were as bad as you say." Suki said, leaning against the rock that the other Warrior was sitting on._

"_A necessary evil, for them at least. As for the stories? Some are exaggerated, some underplayed. But the worst of them are never told."_

"_You think their brutality is necessary? I mean, for a prison, it's expected to an extent. But they've crossed that line generations ago. I'd think it's moved closer to a sadistic pleasure for them." _

"_I've seen it enough to see their reasoning behind it. Think about it; they have prisoners they want control. Prisoners that are usually battle hardened, professional soldiers; many of them benders at that. Much stronger than most of the prison guards there. So, if they can't control them with brute force, they do it through fear. And to do that, they have to use those who can't fight back as easily as a tool to control the benders." The other Warrior explained. She sat there in silence again, watching the waves roll closer to the shore and crest into white ridges that slapped against the rocky coast before disappearing back into the ocean. _

"_So they abuse the non-benders to put fear into the benders; who, if they abuse, could easily try to fight back in a rage." Suki said, trying to make more sense of a world that she knew nothing of._

"_As far as I can tell, yeah. They don't beat people just for the sake of being sadistic. Most of them don't, at least. I mean, there's always the one or two guards that are…darker, in nature." The other Warrior sorted through her memories for a moment or two before continuing. "You know, the first time I went to one of their more notorious prisons, they forced us to watch them lash a man until his back was nothing more than a bloody pulp. Not because they wanted publically to beat him; but, because he tried to escape, and in order to dissuade others from trying to also, they held no reserves for him. Poor bastard, wasn't even his plan if I remember right. Anyway, I'd say it worked well for them. Only one idiot tried to escape for a full two months after that."_

"_That's when you were gone for about that long –" _

_The other Warrior gave her leader a small, knowing, grin, and turned back to staring off into the velvety blackness that embraced the island that night –neither of them feeling the need to break the silence that followed. They sat for hours, one unable to sleep, and one drifting to sleep leaning against a rock, her forehead resting on her arms._

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0o

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_But this? This was different. _ Suki thought as she began to stretch her muscles as much as she could in the cramped cell. _We had attacked their homeland. Tried to depose their leader and, if we were lucky, kill him. These guards would come at us with a vengeance, no doubt. And what can I do? Escape? That'd be suicide right now. And even if I could get off this bloody rock, I'd be stuck in the middle of the Fire Nation with no resources, not even knowledge of the area. And if I attempt and fail? Spirits knows what will happen to me. Heck, a lashing would probably be considered merciful, and death an escape in itself._

She laid there, with nothing but the coarse clothing of a prisoner and the visible layer of accumulated dirt in the cell between her and the steel floor. Resting her head on her hands, she felt herself unable to succumb to the comfort of a deep sleep, it escaping her once again for the third night in a row. For the past days, she had only been getting by on short naps that she caught when she felt remotely safe; leaving her feeling worn out, both physically and mentally.

To Suki, that night, Kyoshi seemed to be worlds away from her. Her imagination ran rampant with the dreadful realization that tonight, it was the prisoner in the cell adjacent to her that was taken away. And come tomorrow, unless by some freak chance that the guards changed their simple pattern, it would be Suki's turn to experience the horrors of the worst that the Fire Nation offered.

And still, she still held fast to the last shred of hope that she could find. The slim chance that Sokka and Aang, Katara and Toph, had all escaped from the invasion without harm. And despite how much she hated having to depend on others, she knew that she could only leave this prison with their help –be it through them breaking her out, or ending the war entirely. She was well aware of how slim the chances of it happening were; and, although she often kept herself from becoming blind to her reality, she saw no harm that night in filling her thoughts with the different scenarios that Sokka could heroically get into the prison and break her out, along with the other prisoners from the invasion that were still being kept there.

_Perhaps that, just maybe, in small doses ignorance can be blissful. _

_Or perhaps I'm just lying to myself._

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hey look, a review button! i wonder what it does?

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